Here is a bit of a different ID Challenge—can you identify the beetles represented in the photo, but more importantly can you deduce what all of these beetles have in common (other than the fact that they belong to the same family)? Obviously these are all jewel beetles (family Buprestidae), so we won’t worry about higher classification. Instead, I’ll give 1 pt for each correctly named genus (don’t bother trying to identify species) and a whopping 5 pts for figuring out what it is they have in common. Early bird pts will be given for the latter question only. Please read the full rules if you are not already familiar with them—good luck!

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About Ted C. MacRae

Ted C. MacRae is a research entomologist by vocation and beetle taxonomist by avocation. Areas of expertise in the latter include worldwide jewel beetles (Buprestidae) and North American longhorned beetles (Cerambycidae). More recent work has focused on North American tiger beetles (Cicindelidae) and their distribution, ecology, and conservation.

33 Responses to ID Challenge #19

I’m going to guess the names in good faith — i.e., I won’t simply list ALL buprestid genera since it doesn’t seem from your post that we’d be docked points for wrong guesses. In that spirit, I think I see:

As for the thing these beetles all have in common, I’ll wager all $22,000 that none of them have ever been to my house. Oh, wait — old joke that no one will get. Instead, let me go out on a limb and guess that all of these beetles have been reared, and oh, what the heck, from the same source of wood.

I’d like to make one small change to my guesses above. That single specimen upper row, right… I’m thinking it’s actually a Spectralia instead of Dicerca. The bottom two rows continue to worry me as does the “thing in common”. I’ve come up with several more plausible guesses for that part, but since they are all just that — guesses — I’ll stick with the implausible one I gave last night.

In honor of this challenge, I visited a log deck today and beat up on the local buprestid population.

I see Dicerca, Chrysobothris and Agrilus, 10 or 11 species total. These are all Buprestids that the native wasp Cerceris fumipennis brought in to provision their nests and you stole them! They could all be from the same nest, but if so you really hit the jackpot. Wow, what fun!

You’ve got three of the six genera shown and the big prize of what they have in common. Two others also got that connection after you, so that’s 2 early bird points for you. I do, however, have to knock a point for not using italics with the genus names😦

Well, I see Dicerca, Actenodes, Spectralia(?), Chalcophora, Chrysobothris including what looks to be a member of the Chrysobothris femorata species complex, and a whole bunch of Agrilus species!

Now, what do they all have in common? Other than all being readily identifiable in a soon-to-be-released field guide to Northeastern Jewel Beetles*, I suspect this represents some of your sample from a local Cerceris fumipennis colony! It looks to me like you have a very active colony on hand, and that you’re making the most of it. Great challenge!

No Chalcophora, but you got five of the six genera (if your book was out you could’ve gotten all six! :)). And yes – they were all collected from Cerceris fumipennis, so you get 5 pts for that plus an early-bird bonus point.

Well, this is not what I was expecting. The genera that I think I recognize are Poecilonota, Dicerca, Agrilaxia, Chrysobothris, and Agrilus. As for what they have in common, there are several things I can think of. They’re probably all from Missouri and it looks like they are all dead, but I’m guessing you’re looking for something else. I’m gonna say that these were all some of the 2,171 pieces of chitin you identified last winter. Or maybe these are all beetles you collected on the 4th of July?

Ok here goes from the top left…4 specimens of Poecilonota spp, 2 Actenodes spp, 1 Spectralia gracilipes, 4 Dicerca lurida, 3 Chrysobothris spp atleast two of them belonging to the C. femorata species complex, and 29 Agrilus spp.
What I believe they all have in common…you harvested them from Cerceris fumipennis adults and/or their burrows.

Top row left to right are: Poecilonota cyanipes and Chrysobothris spp. The second row are Dicerca lurida and Chrysobothris spp. The third row are a series of Agrilus sp. The bottom row represents several Agrilus spp.

I believer their commonality lies in the fact that the larvae are found feeding in various Salicaceae (Salix spp. and Populus spp.).

Those who have followed my Facebook and Twitter feeds during the past month know that I have been using the crabronid wasp, Cerceris fumipennis, to survey for jewel beetles (family Buprestidae). The beetles in this photo represent specimens “ground-picked” from a single field on a single date and include (L–R and top to bottom): 4 Poecilonota cyanipes, 2 Actenodes acornis, 1 Spectralia gracilipes, 4 Dicerca lurida, 2 Chrysobothris spp. (femorata-species group), 1 C. sexsignata, 11 Agrilus politus (2 A. quadriguttatus and 2 A. obsoletoguttatus mixed in the series), 2 A. quadriguttatus, 8 A. obsoletoguttatus, and 3 A. politus (w/ a single A. obsoletoguttatus).

I’ll award points to comments individually based on agreement with the above identifications and whether you figured out the connection to Cerceris fumipennis. Be sure to look for the new post on the subject, which will follow shortly after all comments to this post are addressed.

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